Kolb-Lena, Inc., a manufacturer of cheese in Loran Township, pled guilty to the illegal disposal of production waste Friday that contaminated a tributary of Yellow Creek.

“The investigation of this case is continuing,” said Scott Mulford, press secretary for Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office. “(There was) report of a discharge into the creek in mid-September 2010 that was referred to the Illinois EPA. Corrective measures were taken under the direction of the Illinois EPA to stop the discharges.”

Joining Madigan’s office in bringing forth a resolution was the Stephenson County State’s Attorney’s office.

“We found out about this when a citizen reported an odor and traced it back to where it was leaking,” said Carl Larson, assistant State’s Attorney. “They have already paid the fines in total. We’re glad that they took responsibility and we can move forward from here.”

Kolb-Lena, Inc. was fined $75,000 for the incident and an employee, Costas D. Constantine, 58, was fined $10,000 for misdemeanor negligent water pollution.

“Kolb-Lena, Inc’s management has been very proactive in correcting the matter,” said Nancy Henry, vice president of materials management. “The company was unaware that the practice of transporting whey to a manure pit was considered a violation of Illinois law. Once the issue was brought to management’s attention by Illinois EPA, the company took measures to investigate, address and resolve the allegations, including ending the direct disposal of liquid whey, hiring an environmental consulting firm to review and oversee the company’s specific compliance with environmental regulations and retraining its personnel in the disposal of by-products.”

The fines levied resulted from an incident in which a drain pipe was found to be flowing cheese whey into a tributary of the Yellow Creek near a hog confinement in Loran Township. Kolb-Lena paid the owner of the hog facility to take the whey, which then flowed from a manure pit at the farm into the stream. It was estimated that each truckload of whey brought to the hog facility contained 2,500 gallons of whey.

“We sent out a target letter in 2012 and had a series of meetings to negotiate a resolution,” Larson said. “They were charged with the offenses and plead guilty the same day. To the best of my knowledge, they have cleaned it all up.”

Joe Ginger, President of the Yellow Creek Watershed Partnership, said that pollution into a body of water like Yellow Creek can create a “domino effect” that hurts ecology in the water.

“It’s a complex layer of systems,” Ginger said. “Each layer depends on the others. When people dump into the water they can destroy parts of the ecosystem. Sometimes dumping happens accidently, sometimes there’s a circumstance and sometimes someone takes a shortcut. We don’t like to see people taking shortcuts. We need to pay attention to and protect what goes on in this system.”